


Day 270

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [270]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:53:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26687716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [270]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 1





	Day 270

Between the templar raid and the increased guard presence in Darktown during the hunt for Donnc, things had gotten much quieter than normal at the clinic. Anders found himself dealing with minor injuries and ailments, which gave his minds plenty of time to wander. 

He could not get the image of Nabil, his skin blistered and peeling, out of his mind. Justice was getting harder to keep under control. In some ways he understood the Arishok. Forced to live for years surrounded by acute injustice: it was torture. Especially to a mind that abhorred it.

We must act. Justice would say. Every day we do nothing, we are complicit in the Circle’s evil. We can’t rest until the mages off Thedas are free.

We haven’t even managed to free the mages of Kirkwall. Anders thought. How could we free all of Thedas.

The liberation of Kirkwall will be as the first stone of an avalanche that carried away the old world order and crushed it into dust.

A decent metaphor, Anders thought, cleansing a child’s scraped knee of infection. You’re learning. But we have made progress freeing some mages. Surely the same principle applies. 

A grain of sand cannot start an avalanche. We need a stone large and spectacular enough to draw others to it.

Well, we tried that. Anders countered. We built up a resistance but now they are all dead and the ones who replaced them are mad with power. They care more for causing mayhem then helping or cause. They will turn the people against us. You will turn the people against you if you can’t control yourself.

The templars are also feared. Justice replied. The people recognize the injustice the templars represent only fear holds them back. We need to make it impossible for them to cower in their homes. We need to make the war for freedom unavoidable.

Easier said than done. Anders had to hold back a chuckle as he examined a strange mole on a man’s back. Laughing while examining a patient was even worse than talking to yourself out loud. Most people will do anything to avoid their own problems, Nevermind the problems of others. I should know, I used to be like that, before you came along. 

Apathy, Justice mused. Our great enemy; personified by the Grand Cleric who stands firmly in between. As though standing halfway between Justice and injustice were a virtue. She and her ilk are as much to blame as Meredith perhaps more so… she keeps the people in line. She is the damn holding back the tide of change. 

The Chantry is second only to the gallows for its templar presence, Anders reminded himself. He had to split his focus between holding himself in check and setting a broken arm. We can’t strike against the Grand Cleric any more than we can fight the templars head on. We need to build up a resistance capable of open confrontation.

We have been building a resistance for four years, Justice grumbled. And in a few months we lost all the progress we had been building. Your so called patience will be the death of our mission. It has already cost the lives and freedoms of dozens of mages killed or severed in the time we have been here. 

We need-

Enough! Justice was so loud in Ander’s head. He could hardly think about anything else. He quickly made an excuse to leave an apprentice to deal with a perfectly healthy man who was convinced he was dying. We need to move forwards, not back. If we cannot trust the free mages in Kirkwall we need to spur the others to action. They will lie passively in the hopes of being spared while those around them suffer. We need to remove the ability to compromise for there is no compromise with Injustice. There is no partial Justice, there is simply Justice and injustice and injustice cannot be tolerated.

Anders shoved Justice back down into the annals of his mind, for now. He would need to step up his insurrection if he wanted to keep some measure of control over himself. Or he would need to surrender completely to Justice.


End file.
